Other things on their minds

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Ham20050525.shtmlThe Constitution granted the federal government a very few “enumerated” powers. All the others were to go to our state and local governments, which would be more responsive and accessible to close-by constituents.

The federal government will collect about $18,000 per household in taxes this year—or, enough to buy 1,410 azalea bushes for your ranch-style home and still have money left over for this grill. But in order to figure out where that money goes, you’d have to wade through a $2.5 trillion budget (that’s 12 zeros; I looked it up), for which there is no layman’s analogy because the number is simply too big.

The list of figures could go on and on. The federal government is so monstrous that no one person can possibly know how big it is and how far it reaches. Heck, they don’t even know how much land they own.

Now, don’t you just want to jump in and get involved with that mess after a long day’s work? Of course you don’t. Somehow, I don’t think “immeasurably large” is the perfect size for a democracy dependent on the involvement of normal people. Luckily for the republic, there are a great many extraordinary Americans who are willing to do just that. They start their own blogs, write letters to the editor, and stage demonstrations, all in between the afternoon traffic jam and putting the kids to bed.

But it was never meant to be this hard. The Constitution granted the federal government a very few “enumerated” powers. All the others were to go to our state and local governments, which would be more responsive and accessible to close-by constituents. Since then, of course, the idea of “enumerated,” has been court-packed, New Dealed and Great Societied into something closer to “unlimited.”